Up to now, torques in motor vehicles have been transmitted e. g. by two-piece articulated shafts which are connected with each other via a splined shaft in an non-positive torque-transmitting connection. For the radial guidance and mounting of these shafts, support arrangements of the type as disclosed e. g. in the German Patent Specification DE 10 2004 006 490 B3 have been used. In shaft bearings with support arrangements of the above type, very long distances in the axial direction occur which are caused by the axial locking effect of the splined shaft arrangement or/and by unit movements. Axial deflections of up to 15 mm may result. The support arrangements of the type described in the mention patent specification were therefore designed in such a manner that they do not limit the deflections in the axial direction, but only provide for the radial guidance and the damping of radial deflections of the shafts.
In the course of developments in the field of torque transmission between two shaft portions, in particular, in the area of the drive train of motor vehicles, the requirements for a support arrangement for a shaft bearing have changed considerably by the use of axial ball guides, so-called “ball splines”. The use of axial ball splines enables the connection of two shaft portions by a “floating” bearing unit, which achieves a marked reduction of the forces acting in the axial direction. Because of the floating bearing of the shaft connection, a totally rigid design of a shaft bearing with a support arrangement would be theoretically conceivable, i. e. without any axial clearance. A totally rigid arrangement, however, leads to a high noise generation, e. g. by the transmitted structure-bone sound accompanied by a deterioration of the acoustic properties. In particular in the field of vehicle engineering, however, high importance is attached to the acoustic properties of individual components.